Senior Program Officer, Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene Job

Date: Jul 17, 2013
Location: Seattle, WA, US

Division
Global Development Program

Department
Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

Location
Seattle

Foundation Overview
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people-especially those with the fewest resources-have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Jeff Raikes and co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.

Group Summary
The goal of the Global Development Program (GDP) is to increase opportunities for people in the developing world to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and to help deliver targeted healthcare solutions in these regions. Our strategies focus on Agriculture Development; Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene; Financial Services for the Poor; and Family Health which includes Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Family Planning, and Nutrition. These strategies are supported by functional teams that focus on Vaccine Delivery and Integrated Delivery. GDP also has Special Initiatives that focus Urban Poverty, Emergency Relief, Global Libraries and Value for the Money.

Responsibilities
Located in Seattle, WA, the Senior Program Officer (SPO) for the Urban Sanitation Markets team within the WSH strategy will provide thought leadership and strategic and technical expertise to support the team's efforts to create the conditions for rapid, equitable deployment & adoption of new sanitation technologies. The “reinvented toilet” and other new sanitation technologies will only be as successful as their take-up by people, governments and manufacturers. The SPO will lead the development of investments around user needs, conducive regulatory reform, demonstration cases at city level and the creation of forward and backward linkages between consumers and manufacturers. This portfolio is the economic & financial element of our larger strategy that strengthens our engineering work.

The SPO will bring a breadth of experience and knowledge in the economics of R&D, market introduction and adoption of innovation, dissemination and the industrial organization of markets for regulated products. The SPO will understand the implications of public health considerations for pricing & marketing strategies of sanitation products, the potential for monopolies to capture surplus, & the promise of market based mechanisms to improve on outcomes in the sanitation sector. .

Key areas of work will include:

Strategic & technical expertise in technology introduction/commercialization for regulated public services & associated products

Assess market (segments, consumer preferences, market size, demand projections, competitive landscape, product supply projections, etc.) to inform strategic planning

Apply information to refine user requirements/target product profiles, optimize portfolios, & define go/no-go criteria

Develop critical path for innovation launch and ensure timely execution of necessary activities in partnership with internal & external partners (regulatory planning, manufacturing plans/price, costing/financing, guideline development, support for policy decision) to drive toward fast launch

Support the new businesses & service delivery models that leverage donor, public & private investments for large scale adoption of innovation;

Investment Mgmt:

Scope, shape, propose, & manage investments to execute activities to support programmatic goals around user experience, the creation of ready city markets and regulatory frameworks, linkages between consumers, retailers, manufacturers and regulators

Develop projects with clear, measurable outcomes and milestones that enable nimble course-correction

Partner relations:

Scan the area to find promising opportunities to advance strategies

Develop effective relationships with internal, external partners and grantees to ensure implementation of the launch plans

Strategic planning/performance management/team participation:

Provide objective, evidence-based input to design strategic plans & participate in annual planning

Contribute in identifying & gathering quantitative/qualitative information to measure progress against strategic goals.

Qualifications
-10+ yrs experience in: introduction of innovation to market; assessing and characterizing markets in order to define user requirements/target product profile; learning by doing, learning from others, and the more general potential for technology adoption and dissemination preferred
-Knowledge of pro-poor service delivery models and profile of social enterprises; in water and sanitation business preferred
-Demonstrated ability to think and act like an investor when making strategic decisions and plans; driving a strategy toward successful implementation, course correcting, measuring for results, and reporting on progress
-Excellent written and oral communication skills to convey complex situations in a clear and concise manner, in positions requiring communication with a broad and diverse audience
-Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational situations, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people
-MBA, MA/MSc./PhD in business, public policy, economics, business economics, or other related social science field that focuses on markets, institutions and incentives for technology adoption and dissemination
-Development experience – preferably interacting with key global institutions, markets, and stakeholders
-Knowledge of government and water and sanitation markets and regulatory regimes strongly preferred
-Ability to orchestrate effective decisions across a broad range of issues and stakeholders, assess progress, analyze gaps, and make necessary changes
-Experience developing and managing projects in a matrix team environment
-Experience in – and enjoyment of – managing individual contributors
-Innovative and open-minded approach; ability to question and challenge colleagues including managers and partners, in a constructive manner
-Demonstrated ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in a complex, fast-paced environment
-Ability to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally
-Self-motivation and self-management
-Optimism

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a comprehensive background check.


Requisition Number
4211BR

Nearest Major Market: Seattle
Job Segments: Program Manager, Agricultural, Architecture, Engineer, Law, Management, Agriculture, Engineering, Legal

For further information and to apply, see here: careers.gatesfoundation.org/job/Seattle-...3807825&locale=en_US






[Posted by Hector]